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Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 228
Back then the X-Men were still living at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and Dazzler was in the middle of a training session that is interrupted by Wolverine. Logan puts himself in the line of battle and does not help, leading to Dazzler failing her training session. When she asks why he didn't help, he tells her that she has to learn to stand on her own before she can rely on her teammates. This makes her angry, and she reminds him that she acted solo long before she joined the X-Men and can look after herself . After a show, Dazzler vents her frustrations to Rogue and Psylocke, when Psylocke finds a story that Dazzler would find interesting. How a suspect in a series of "werewolf murders" had been recently arrested, and Dazzler is shocked to see that it is her old friend O.Z. Chase. Knowing that Chase could not be responsible for the slaying she decides to head down to Florida and try to help her friend. When Logan learns of it, she tells her not to go off half-cocked and by herself. However, Ali doesn't want to leave her friend and rejects Logan's offer for the X-Men to accompany her as backup, telling him that this is a personal affair that she can handle alone. Meanwhile up on the Florida Panhandle, a farmer is about to go into town to meet with his daughter when he spots someone getting into his truck. When he approaches the would be thief, the man kills him with an energy blast and drives off. When Dazzler arrives in the town where O.Z. is being held, she is surprised to see that Wolverine has followed her there. Logan tells her that he doesn't listen to what he's told and figured she needed the help as he got the feeling that she wasn't entirely sure that O.Z. was entirely innocent. Admitting this, she tells Logan about O.Z.'s dog, Cerberus and thinks the dog might have had something to do with the murders. As Dazzler goes to the police station and tries in vein to see O.Z., Logan notices that someone is following them and when the man doesn't provide any answers he knocks him out. Later, Dazzler breaks into the impound yard to try and find O.Z.'s truck and when she does she is surprised to find Cerberus there. She takes the dog back to the hotel room she and Logan are staying at and figures that Chase is the key but doesn't know how to get to him. Logan however has a plan: after downing an entire bottle of Whiskey, Logan acts trunk and disorderly so that he gets arrested and placed in a cell near O.Z. As Logan pretends to "sleep it off", some men come into the cell block and begin demanding information on O.Z.'s most recent bounty, and tell him one of their men is missing. O.Z. tells them that all the information he has is on the police report. Realizing that something is up, Logan breaks out of his cell and knocks the two men out. Busting Chase out of jail, the two return to the hotel where Dazzler demands to know what O.Z. got himself into. He tells her he was hired to go after what he thought was your basic skip and trace. He was hired to hunt down Columbian drug dealer Vladimir Zaitsev, who was arrested in a drug bust in L.A. who vanished when he was released on bail. Tracking him down to Florida he tracked the man down and fought through his security and confronted Zaitsev. Zaitsev blasted him, knocking him out and left him to be arrested by the police, who believed he was responsible for Vladimir's murders. When Logan asks to see a picture, he is shown one and remembers Vladimir a man who Logan tussled with years ago when Zaitsev was a member of the KGB. This leaves them to wonder who was after Zaitsev. When there is a knock at the door, Logan recognizes the scent and opens it to find Henry Gyrich on the other side, a man that Logan knew when he was working with Canadian intelligence. Gyrich tells Logan that he now works for the NSA and his area of expertise is with mutants and asks if he can talk to the trio. Logan agrees and learns that Zaitsev was hired by the NSA to be a spy to leak information on the Soviet's mutant training programs so that the United States could prepare the proper defense. However, Zaitsev not only double crossed the NSA, but the KGB as well and ran off to Columbia where he set himself up as a drug lord. He explains that Zaitsev is on the run and that the Russians have sent spies to the States to eliminate him before he can give any information the US authorities. Gyrich asks Logan to help track down and capture Zaitsev -- alive -- telling him that it could help the X-Men's reputation. Logan doesn't like the idea of letting Zaitsev go unpunished for his crimes but he agrees to work alone and capture the spy. When Logan beings tracking him he is surprised to find that both Dazzler and O.Z. have come along and decided to help out. Seeing no choice the trio work together to track down Zaitsev. They find him at the same time as the Russian agents sent to kill him and witness as Zaitsev kills them with his mutant powers. When Logan approaches him, a battle breaks out. When Dazzler attempts to Dazzle him, one of the surviving assassins tries to shoot her and she manages to dodge his shots and Zaitsev's attacks and take the shooter out. While Logan and O.Z. attempt to stop Zaitsev, but he flees the scene. However, he is attacked by Cerberus who savagely mauls him to death. When the trio return to Gyrich to tell him what happened, the NSA agent is furious however the two X-Men and their friend are not that concerned considering that Zaitsev was a drug dealer. The entire experience leaves Dazzler to feel sorry for Gyrich, a man she feels is so caught up in his work that he cannot see the good that they did.... As O.Z. finishes reading the letter, he overhears one of the bar patrons speaking ill of the X-Men's sacrifice, angering him. Pulling out his shotgun he gets everyone in the bar to raise their glasses to Dazzler and the X-Men. Leaving the bar, O.Z. and Cerberus go back to his truck where he pulls down his sun visor revealing a photograph of Dazzler and raises one more drink in her memory. | Appearing1 = Featured Characters: * ** ** ** ** Supporting Characters: * * * Antagonists: * Other Characters: * Thomas and unnamed wife * Various Floridians * Locations: * ** * ** *** **** * ** Pentonville ** Citrus Center | Notes = * Plot by DeFalco, script by Claremont. * This story is a flashback issue and narrated by Dazzler in the form of a letter she wrote to O.Z. Chase. | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * - See for further referencing }} References